Cancel software for refund?

[abcd]

Can I cancel this software and get a refund?  I looked for some time and was unable to find a trial copy although the subject was around previously.  I was looking for a PS replacement but I'm not willing to do the work that would be necessary for that to happen with this software.  I have spent already about 4 hours trying to get a soft proof profile removed and get back to the original view without success.  I am also about to leave for six months where I will not have 24/7 internet access and that seems absolutely necessary to make this current software work.  I am willing to try again in a year or so but not now.

[AndyB1]

Sorry you have asked for a refund but if you send en e-mail to affinityreturns@serif.com quoting your order number they will be able to deal with this for you.

[Patrick Connor]

AndyB1 is correct for any purchase from the Serif via the Affinity Store (https://affinity.store). However, if you bought from the Mac App Store or from the Microsoft Store then Serif have no record of the purchase and cannot refund you, in which case and you are best to request a refund through the relevant store directly.

[abcd]

I did buy, of course, from Apple.  Dealing with Apple sounds like throwing more good time after bad.  Lesson learned, don't buy any software, no matter how good the reviews, without a trial period.  Even a quick 72 hour trial would have allowed me to run through the half dozen things I would need to see work in the software.  We'll try again in a year or so as long as I don't have to purchase  another upgrade by then.

[walt.farrell]

By the way, you don't need 24x7 Internet access to use the software.

You will probably want to watch the various training videos, but many of them can be downloaded for offline use. (The videos about printing would have explained soft-proofing, for example. And to remove it, by the way, just hide it or delete it using the Layers panel.)

And you might want occasional access to ask questions and get answers in these forums, where the user community or the Serif staff can provide quick answers or suggestions for most how-to questions.

[Alfred]

38 minutes ago, abcd said:

Lesson learned, don't buy any software, no matter how good the reviews, without a trial period.  Even a quick 72 hour trial would have allowed me to run through the half dozen things I would need to see work in the software.

https://affin.co/phototrial

[abcd]

"https://affin.co/phototrial"

That's very interesting.  About 2 hours with Safari and Google looking for exactly that produced nothing since about 2016 and all the links from that time were broken.  I also remembers times over the years when Apple and Adobe were fighting with each other with similar results.  

[abcd]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

And to remove it, by the way, just hide it or delete it using the Layers panel.)

That's what I would have thought and tried.  I just tried it again, trashing the entire soft proof layer and it still didn't work.  In the upper left where the size and color are the profile I was using remains.  This is very apparent as the profile is for a black and white printing process.  A new raw file comes in with correct color and a minute later the image goes monochrome.  There is a b&w jpeg preview that may be embedded in the raw file, but that should not be what is displayed when editing the raw file, no?

[walt.farrell]

10 hours ago, abcd said:

That's what I would have thought and tried.  I just tried it again, trashing the entire soft proof layer and it still didn't work.  In the upper left where the size and color are the profile I was using remains

That sounds like you are not using soft-proofing in the way that Affinity has it designed to work. The soft-proofing profile name would not appear in the context bar as you indicated it did. Soft-proofing is done by using an adjustment layer, with additional adjustments as needed layered on top of it.

Without a screenshot of what you did, though, I can't comment further except to mention that if you have not watched the soft-proofing tutorial I recommend doing so. 

[walt.farrell]

10 hours ago, abcd said:

A new raw file comes in with correct color and a minute later the image goes monochrome.  There is a b&w jpeg preview that may be embedded in the raw file, but that should not be what is displayed when editing the raw file, no?

I'd rather not comment on that without understanding it better, and possibly seeing a screenshot and having a sample file to examine. Sorry.

[James Ritson]

10 hours ago, abcd said:

That's what I would have thought and tried.  I just tried it again, trashing the entire soft proof layer and it still didn't work.  In the upper left where the size and color are the profile I was using remains.  This is very apparent as the profile is for a black and white printing process.  A new raw file comes in with correct color and a minute later the image goes monochrome.  There is a b&w jpeg preview that may be embedded in the raw file, but that should not be what is displayed when editing the raw file, no?

Hi, Photo doesn't use the preview JPEG in any capacity so that shouldn't be the issue. When you say 'a minute later' do you mean when you click Develop? If so, have you somehow changed the default colour profile to use your soft proofing profile instead? (through Preferences>Colour) This is inadvisable, I'd recommend just sticking to sRGB or a wider profile like Adobe RGB/ROMM RGB. You soft proof via an adjustment layer which you then disable before sending to print—it's a different method but the results are the same.

By all means, you should be able to contact Apple for a refund—if you still have the app installed however, it would be really useful to see a couple of screenshots and get an idea of what's happening. Would you be able to take a screenshot of your main workspace with the document's colour profile listed in the top right? And additionally maybe a shot of the Preferences>Colour dialog?

Thanks,
James

[abcd]

"That sounds like you are not using soft-proofing in the way that Affinity has it designed to work."

"Hi, Photo doesn't use the preview JPEG in any capacity so that shouldn't be the issue."

I've looked at it further and I don't think it is an issue of the soft proof profile, but I'll return to that in a moment and in the screen shots to come it'll be apparent why I was looking in that direction.

This issue has to do with the embedded JPEG and the camera settings I believe.

I am shooting with a D200 converted to Full Spectrum with various filters.  I shoot Raw and JPEG with the JPEG set to monochrome.  I use the JPEG in monochrome as I use a lot of the higher IR filters and I chimp a lot to an iPad to set exposure and focus.  Using the b&w helps with the general tonality when using an 830nm or 720nm filter.

What I've found with PS CS6 ( ACR actually, is that when I import the raw file in to Bridge it generally comes in monochrome and then as soon as the previews have fully wound up they switch to color.)  All is well and good there.  I can see the raw file as I set WB and process lens corrections, noise etc.  On many of the filters I use I have to create a second Camera profile in order to bring WB down to where I can use the ACR eyedropper on a grey card.  No problem there as I have a pretty good workflow worked out.

As a side trip last night I was looking at Capture NX-D wondering if I could make individual WB settings for some of the different filters I use and export them to the Camera.  That was something the older Nikon Capture software allowed.  What I discovered was that the raw files (NEF) imported in to Capture also came in as monochrome so Nikon is obviously processing raw differently than ACR with Nikon giving you minimal options for input. 

Then we have Affinity that appears to bring the file in as raw with a preview that shows what ACR refers to "as shot" concerning WB.  Then when the files is moved to the Photo persona the file goes to monochrome and WB is essentially muted.

 

Now the soft proof issue comes in because when I was initially running the software through some exercises to see if it would meet my needs at one point I chose a b&w printer profile to see if Affinity was looking for and finding my existing profiles.

That profile can be seen on the screen here although it has been turned off back at the layer where it had been initially turned on.

(not sure where screenshots fit in to the text here so I'll just continue and then we'll see.)

In the second screen shot in the Develop Persona, the text in that line is referring to 32bit HDR.  I have no idea where that came from.

The best I can come up with is that Affinity is acting similar to Captive NX-D and doing a whole lot of raw processing on it's own, which is weird for me because WB would apparently come later in the Photo Persona after the raw conversion.

Just a side note as well, this is what most google searches for Affinity and Trial get:

 

https://affinity.store/get/photo/trial/

No information is available for this page.

Learn why

 

"Learn why" links to Google telling you Affinity is blocking google's request for information.  Secondary issue for me but may be of interest to Affinity.  Essentially if you go looking for Affinity via Safari and Google, the fact that there is a trial version seems completely lost.

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, abcd said:

Just a side note as well, this is what most google searches for Affinity and Trial get:

 

https://affinity.store/get/photo/trial/

No information is available for this page.

Learn why

 

"Learn why" links to Google telling you Affinity is blocking google's request for information.  Secondary issue for me but may be of interest to Affinity.  Essentially if you go looking for Affinity via Safari and Google, the fact that there is a trial version seems completely lost.

I'm not sure what's happening there, but if I click on that link I get to the page to download the trial version of the software. That should be all you needed to do, too.

Note that, for me, the entry you showed is the 3rd in the result list. The first one is probably the one that Serif expects you to use:

[abcd]

"The first one is probably the one that Serif expects you to use:"

This is what I get: #1 for Affinity Designer, #2 for a drug in trial called Aphinity and #3 for Affinity.  The "No Information" which I'd never seen before with Google sent me onwards without clicking.  If there was a free trial I would have expected it to be in Apple's App store as well.  Like I said, academic to me now but I would think Affinity and Apple have an issue.  Mac users have gotten used to the headaches that can arise when you download software outside of the app store.

 

 

 

 

[Patrick Connor]

Your results see to have ads turned off or not showing. Also the signup url is an old method and now redirects to the basket rather than 404.

There is a link to the trial in the footer at the bottom of these pages

• affinity.serif.com/designer/desktop/
• affinity.serif.com/photo/desktop/

When we pay for google ads we can make the button more obvious at the top thus

• affinity.serif.com/designer/desktop/?trial=1
• affinity.serif.com/photo/desktop/?trial=1

When customers ASK for the trial we give them a direct link to a basket (and for some google ads search results)

• affinity.store/get/designer/trial/
• affinity.store/get/photo/trial/

When on social media I will sometimes use shortened links so if those URLs above change in the future the social media post remains true (as the link can be edited at our end)

• affin.co/designertrial (direct basket link for someone who has made up their mind)
• affin.co/designertrial2 (marketing page link for someone who needs more info)
• affin.co/phototrial
• affin.co/phototrial2

[abcd]

2 hours ago, James Ritson said:

By all means, you should be able to contact Apple for a refund—if you still have the app installed however, it would be really useful to see a couple of screenshots and get an idea of what's happening. Would you be able to take a screenshot of your main workspace with the document's colour profile listed in the top right? And additionally maybe a shot of the Preferences>Colour dialog?

Sorry James.  Here is what you were asking for I think.  Circled in green.  I had been focusing on what was circle in red.

[abcd]

James, I did look at the preferences pane and it was on the the Baryte profile listed above but changing to Adobe RGB in preferences did not change the image from monochrome.

[abcd]

James, step 3.  We've gotten somewhere.  I had failed to restart Affinity after switching to adobe RGB.  Now I stay in color going in to Photo.  I must have inadvertently plugged the baryte print profile in to the preferences.  But it nags me that I can't understand the need for different Develop and Photo Personas.  I also found the WB "dropper" in Develop so that was clarifying.  I guess what I'm asking is at what point do you leave the realm of a raw file in Affinity? To be honest, with Adobe I do most of my work in ACR with steps for local contrast, b&w conversion and final sharpening in PS.

I did like the Panorama and HDR functions in Affinity as they reminded me of Panorama Tools capabilities but smoother results and infinitely easier to work with.